Friday, September 14, 2007

-No.53- Jason Schmidt-No.60- Jim Thome-No.175- Jorge Posada-No.199- Brad Hawpe-No.64- John Smoltz-No.57- Jeff Kent-No.136- David Wright-No.192- Chone FigginsI can't believe that kid standing next to Ryan Klesko on the 1992 Upper Deck Star Rookie Checklist card is about to his his 500th home run. You know for no short print this pack is pretty damn good. There are like 4 or 5 potential Hall of Famers in here. Thome's about to hit the magic number. Smoltz is a pretty good bet especially since his elbow hasn't disintegrated yet and he looks like he still wants to pitch. I don't know what to think about Jeff Kent. My head looks at the numbers and thinks "no brainer". But when I look at a future where Kent is in the Hall of Fame while Rice, Dawson, Santo, Mattingly, Murphy, Hodges, Maris, Kaat, Blyleven, Morris, Hershiser, Goose, Minoso and O'Neil are on the outside looking in, my heart starts organizing a torch wielding mob to march upon Cooperstown to burn the joint to the ground.

Schmidt and Posada are longshots, but who knows. Jorge's a Yankee and truckloads of rings really help a player's case for induction (See: Phil Rizzuto). With the state of starting pitching today, Schmidt might keep getting offered contracts until he's 50 and rack up some big numbers. David Wright 2007 = Chipper Jones 1998. He's going to be scary the next few years. Chone Figgins will probably never get inducted to Cooperstown, but as long as he's stealing bases and playing half the positions on the field I'll keep drafting him for my Fantasy team.